30 September 2024
Woodchuck Lake to Pearl Lake
(15 miles, +2,600/-1,800 feet).

It was cozy last night but warm. I still struggle with getting comfortable when the temperature is in the 50s. Too warm for my quilt but too cold without it.

But it was fine. This time of year it’s dark for about 12 hours, so there is plenty of time for rest if not sleep in the tent.

When the sun did come up, it put on a spectacular show. Again.

Our first climb this morning took us up to a lovely granite ridge with views of Crown Lake.

We headed towards Crown Pass and about halfway there I realized that I left my wind pants behind at the last stop.

D’oh!

I dropped my pack and told Chia and Ultra that I would catch up with them at Halfmoon Lake. I then jogged the half mile back to our viewpoint, found the pants, and then jogged the half mile back to my pack.

Bonus mile!

At least it was a lovely piece of trail to see three times.

After Crown Pass the trail drops to the lake.

We took a nice long break at the lake before heading down to North Fork Kings River.

After Halfmoon Lake the scenery was kind of ho hum, passing through a forest with few views that was littered with blow downs. But we took another nice long break at North Fork Kings at a lovely spot with shaded granite slabs that I did not photograph.

And then we climbed above tree line (yay!).

I had originally planned to leave the trail and head cross country straight for Pearl Lake. But when we saw how thick the vegetation was there we decided to stay on trail up to Portal Lake.

At Portal Lake we took a long break. Some of us swam.

Some of us napped.

And then we studied the next step: getting up to the next basin above Portal Lake.

I had a very good plan to go to the left of the ravine feeding Portal Lake. But then when we got closer I said “well that looks mellow, let’s head straight up!”

But then we got to a very Class 3 move that UltraShuffle found a way around, but Chia and I were kind of stuck. Ultra had to help up Chia, and they both had to help me!

After that it was physically demanding, but not exposed.

Oh, and it was also beautiful!

Once we were up on the flat part, we climbed a little to the south to get a view of Crown Basin.

Then we headed over to Midway Lake.

From there we climbed a bit to the spectacular Cathedral Lake.

Next we headed to Chapel Lake

Then we climbed a little above the lake to figure out how to get to Pearl Lake. We stumbled on a cairn there, and sure enough there was a use trail that traversed a steep slope going right the way we wanted to go.

We originally thought we would camp just north of the isthmus between the two parts of Pearl Lake. But it was just an exposed sandy flat, probably too close to the water.

After some searching, Chia suggested we head for a bench above the northwest part of the lake. And it was PERFECT!